During 2014–2020, the Florida Department of Health in Sarasota County (DOH-Sarasota) developed a program to prepare for weather-related disaster impacts on the county’s Access and Functional Needs (AFN) population, with a special focus on emergency communication and evacuation. This case report presents a retrospective evaluation of the planning process used to engage diverse stakeholders, build inter-agency collaborations, and integrate disaster and health policies to enhance community resilience.

DOH-Sarasota fashioned their multi-tiered approach on agency-facing and community-engaged activities by implementing FEMA’s Whole Community approach to better understanding AFN communities, to engage and empower both AFN residents and the organizations that serve them, and to strengthen AFN community assets in the context of hurricane preparedness.

DOH-Sarasota’s planning process aimed to build critical new partnerships, incorporate the perspectives of AFN groups in the planning process, and establish critical resource networks. Vulnerability is not uniform and understanding this diversity of needs is necessary to better target resources and expand opportunities for more representation in decision-making.

By finding opportunities to gather and share knowledge in sustained and reflexive ways, the case study is a translatable example of how public health and emergency management agencies can expand their capacities and policies to integrate, collaborate, educate and innovate towards increased community resilience for AFN populations.